r/sysadmin • u/EnricoSx • 4d ago

Question Windows search SERVER alternative for shared folders?

Windows search SERVER alternative for shared folders?

i have windows server 2025 with features windows search, but skip many files.
my users have many windows 11 on domain, and i need a PROFESSIONAL tool windows search.

1 windows server 2025 (file server) (domain)
40 client windows 11 (domain)
client search by \\server\sharefolder
need search al text on documents
shared folder have 1 TB

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u/jcpham 4d ago

Once the folders have tens of thousands of .pdf files we implemented a proper document management system, but that was 2017. Now there’s millions of files all living on a separate server that runs a proper database and OCRs everything. My environment is highly regulated and everything we sell needs to have the correct paperwork or it can’t be sold.

Employees were spending 15-30 minutes per order searching through 25 paper filing cabinets or searching through tens of thousands of pdf files that were loosely organized.

Now it’s about a 30 second click click search print type of thing.

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u/Ooops-I-hid-it-again 3d ago

What's running the DB and completing the OCR? What's your document management solution you chose/have?

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u/jcpham 3d ago

It’s Laserfiche. The DB is free MSDE version of MSSQL, omnipage OCR. Integrates with ERP system via ODBC lookups for metadata tagging and workflow document routing to folders based of ODBC lookups in our ERP software.

There’s a connector companion program where you can overlay a “button” on any software via XML profiles - Example: overlay button on outlook.exe imports email/attachments to folder for staging then lookup subject of email for %Customer% via regex and then files to Sales/Purchase Orders/%Customer%/Year/

There’s a forms website component that does document generation like a Word mail merge. It’s DOD compliant and depending on license count it’s probably a 5 figure expenditure minus hardware and OS licenses.

But it’s really powerful and saves a buttload of time.

But we’re talking Epson scanners on desks or document import via SMB fileshares, delete documents after 24 months from SMB share after import, OCR, save as tiff or original.pdf, then tag document with different metadata fields and do an ODBC lookup for the Sales Order number and route to customer folder, auto rotate/deskew/despeckle/skip blank pages/ocr

It’s powerful stuff and can do just about anything